Evaluative acts in the language of Kartini’s letter as a representation of ideological conflict

Kartini was one of the pioneers of women’s emancipation in Indonesia before independence. The collection of Kartini’s letters was famous in Europe when Mr J. H. Abendanon published it in the Netherlands in 1911 with the title Door Duisternis Tot Licht. Sulastin Sutrisno translated the book with the title Surat Kartini tentang dan untuk Bangsanya in 1979. One of Kartini’s friends who received this letter was Miss Zeehandelaar, a feminist figure in the Netherlands. There is a form of experiential evaluative act in a letter that expects, complains, criticizes, and influences. Kartini positions herself in the letter as the narrator’s subject and the object being told in the form of her knowledge and thoughts about herself and her nation amidst the conditions at that time. The language acts in the letter show that there is a conflict between Kartini’s views and traditional ideologies and colonial powers, such as emancipation, education, social society, nationalism, and literacy.